Ahead of his 250th game on Friday night, Daniel Rich has lauded Brisbane coach Chris Fagan for saving his career.

Fagan came to the Lions at the end of 2016, to a club that was just about at rock bottom.

Rich was symbolic of that. After being taken at No.7 in the 2008 NAB AFL Draft, the blond-haired West Australian with the prodigious left boot was stagnating as a player, battling to make a consistent impact as a midfielder and floundering in a poor team.

His confidence was low.

Enter the new coach.

00:45

14th AFL season, same old Daniel Rich

Daniel Rich unleashes a monster kick to land a typically brilliant goal from distance.

 

"He's been amazing," Rich said of Fagan on Tuesday morning.

"For me personally, our first meeting, one of the things he said to me was 'your best footy is ahead of you'.

"I hadn't really heard that before.

"I was in the second half of my career, and to have that faith from your head coach was pretty special."

And the coach had a plan. With Dayne Beams, Dayne Zorko and Tom Rockliff as midfield centrepieces, Fagan suggested moving Rich to defence, where he could use his kicking to orchestrate Brisbane's attack.

"From a positional point of view, he'd done it with (Luke) Hodge, (Sam) Mitchell, those guys, they'd been good midfielders, I was just an average midfielder, but he just thought 'why don't we see how things go down back?'.

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Best of 2021: Daniel Rich

Daniel Rich was in All Australian form this year. He has proven that he is one of the best kicks in the game whether it's hitting a target or launching it through the goals from outside 50.

"To be honest, that's kind of saved my career in a way.

"If that decision wasn't made, and the faith from him, I don't think I'd potentially be here."

Still just 31, Rich has improved in each of his past four years, culminating in his first Therabody AFL All-Australian jacket in 2021.

A man of few words, he is revered among his teammates for his loyalty and sense of humour.

"There were those doubts along the way that I'm not good enough, especially when the team's battling as well," he said.

"It's part of footy, it's part of life, we all go through it no matter what we're doing as people.

05:45

A Rich 200

Daniel Rich's road to 200 AFL games for the Brisbane Lions has been full of highs and lows. Hear from the people who have been with him on the journey.

"I think to have your head coach, someone new, who'd done a lot in the game, to come in and say your best footy is ahead of you, it gives you a bit of a kick, which is good."

Since Brisbane merged with Fitzroy, Rich has played the fourth-most games for the club, trailing only Simon Black (322), Luke Power (282) and Jonathan Brown (256).

But in all that time, Rich has never taken the four premiership points against Geelong at GMHBA Stadium – something he hopes to rectify in his milestone match.

"They've been a good team for a long period of time," he said.

"They're experienced, they're big, they're strong. That's the way they've been for as long as I can remember.

"We've had a few wins against them, but they've been at the Gabba, so our next challenge is getting it done down there.A challenge we're looking forward to."